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Could you define it? (Score:1)
Re:Could you define it? (Score:2)
Oy. Given that I often ask for definitions, I guess I deserved that question :)
"Baby perl" generally seems to refer to using a small subset of the language to get things done even though the full expressiveness of the language would allow a task to get done cleaner and simpler. Unfortunately, that "subset" might not include things like "strict", "sub" and other commonly used bits of the language. And what's the cutoff for "small"? Larry has said more than once that there's nothing wrong with using Baby Perl, though others seem to disagree.
I guess that without a clear definition, it's not an easy to question to ask or answer.
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Re: (Score:1)
Babies are wonderful. Babies have their place. But you don't want them driving heavy machinery. (Though letting them think they are driving heavy machinery can be a lot of fun.)
Similarly it is good that people can learn some baby Perl and make their lives easier. I think that's wonderful and nobody should object. The problem comes when the baby graduates to programming toddlerdom and tries to insi
Re: (Score:2)
Larry has said more than once that there's nothing wrong with using Baby Perl, though others seem to disagree.
I guess that without a clear definition, it's not an easy to question to ask or answer.
To me, Baby Perl always feels like it's written by someone who learned BASIC in the 1970s from a bad book or a class with low expectations. Maybe some subs, but generally large ones. Lots of if/elsif/elsif cascades (with nested ifs). No references, objects or regexes. Cut and paste design. Use and abuse of flag variables. Many non-local references (either globals or lexicals defined way above the fold). Lots of code...
btilly got it right: you want babies, but you don't want babies driving heavy m